


the cooler

by softlyfeather



Category: Supernatural
Genre: 7 minutes in heaven, First Kiss, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-16 11:20:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29081523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/softlyfeather/pseuds/softlyfeather
Summary: based on new girl 2x15: the coolersam and dean go out to pick up some ladies but end up back at the bunker with just one. cas tries to make it up to dean but it doesn't go quite as planned...
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Comments: 8
Kudos: 44





	the cooler

Dean couldn’t help himself. The trench coat had been left draped over one of the kitchen chairs - he performed a cursory glance around the bunker to make sure no one was watching as he grabbed it and ran to his room. Once the door was shut, he slid it on, surprised at how nice the fabric was. It was actually smooth and silky despite looking like a potato sack. Dean looked at himself in the mirror and swished back and forth a couple times so that the coat swirled out around him. He actually looked kind of badass. Like an undercover agent. _Or Inspector Gadget_ , he grinned to himself. 

There was a knock at his door and he momentarily panicked before deciding that playing it cool was the best option. “Come in.”

“Hey Dean,” it was Sam. “I was wondering if you-” he stopped mid-sentence as he came around the door and saw him. “Uhh… is that… Cas’s coat?” 

“Ya.”

Sam stared at him, waiting for an explanation that apparently wasn’t coming. “Ok then. I was wondering if you wanted to go down to the roadhouse tonight? It’s been a long time and I wanna get back on the horse.”

Dean raised his brows, “Good for you, Sammy. I’m sure we can find you a nice lady horse.”

“You too, Dean. I know it’s been a while, but we deserve to find some happiness when we’re not out killing things.” He grimaced at the awkward but truthful wording. 

Dean tilted his head back and forth in thought before deciding, “Maybe you’re right.” The fact that he had to think for more than a second to remember the last time showed how long it had really been. Sleeping with someone just hadn’t been on his priority list in forever. There was always a new curse to break, or someone to save. Sam or Cas being the usual suspects. Maybe it was time to think about his own needs for once. 

“Is that my coat?” Dean hadn’t even noticed Cas appear in his doorway. 

Dean smirked, “Don’t I look dashing?” He did a little spin and Sam fought to hide a laugh. Cas just frowned and said nothing.

“So you’ll be ready to go soon?” Sam asked.

“Go where?” Cas interjected before Dean could answer.

“We’re going to the bar.” Sam answered.

“Can I come?” Cas asked, looking towards Dean for some reason. Dean thought back to the last time Cas joined them and how his constant staring had made every girl he’d talked to eventually pull him aside later in the night and ask why he was trying to pick them up in front of his boyfriend. 

“Uh… maybe not this time, buddy. You’re a cooler.”

“A cooler?”

Dean shrugged, “Ya, the ladies don’t like the staring. You cool things off.”

“Ah.” Cas pressed his lips together and looked away. “I’ve been meaning to reorganize my books anyways.” 

“And I’m sure Jack would appreciate the company!” Sam added. Cas nodded without looking at either of them and shuffled away. Sam threw a look at Dean. “That wasn’t very nice.”

Dean threw up his hands in defence, “It’s true though! Cas is always glued to my side, it doesn’t exactly scream ‘single’.” 

Sam sighed. “True. Still. Next time, he comes too.”

Dean nodded. “Deal.” He did feel a bit bad. Cas had looked pretty disappointed. 

Dean met Sam by the doorway to the bunker. “You’re wearing the coat?” Sam’s eyebrows were almost lost in his hair. 

He pulled Cas’s coat closer around him, “Ya. It makes me look sophisticated.” Dean ignored the fact that the coat smelled like Cas and it was kind of nice to have that wrapped around him. It definitely wasn’t about that.

Sam coughed a laugh. “Ya, sure it does.”

***

Taking another sip of whiskey from the glass next to him on the floor, Castiel put the final book back onto the shelf. He’d sorted them first by author, but that didn’t seem right, so he’d tried title, and then finally decided that he wanted them sorted by colour. The rainbow on his shelf made him smile. _Perfect_. 

There was a frantic knocking at his door. He jumped up and opened it to find Jack looking worried. “What’s wrong?”

“Remember how you were telling me about chupacabras the other day?”

“Yes.”

“Well I’m pretty sure there’s one outside,” Jack pointed towards the bunker door.

“Why do you think that?” Cas asked as he walked with Jack towards the entrance. He had to steady himself on the wall and was only now realizing how much he must have drank. 

“There’s a weird noise coming from out there.” They paused a few feet away from the door, listening intently. Then there it was, a strange scratching, and perhaps a low howling? They both jumped back and Cas threw his arm across Jack’s chest. “What are we going to do, Cas?”

Cas shook his head and the room spun slightly. “Let’s go back to the living room and figure this out.” He needed to sit down. 

Settled on the couch, Jack had pulled a blanket up to his chest with his legs drawn up under it. His eyes were still wide and scared. “What if it wants to get in here to suck our blood?”

“They usually go after livestock.”

“What if it couldn’t find any? Maybe it can smell us?”

Cas started to shake his head but then stopped as the room moved again. “It shouldn’t be able to through the door. I also don’t think it will be able to get in. We should be safe, Jack.” His mind wasn’t working very quickly. And he didn’t feel entirely correct in his answers. 

“Can we get Dean and Sam to come home? I’d feel better if we were all home.”

“Alright.” Cas pulled out his phone and hit the speed dial for Dean.

***

Sam and Dean hadn’t had much luck at the bar. Though there was one woman who seemed to be into both of them somehow. They’d been competing for her attention all evening. Holly. Kept trying to bring up their “daddy issues”. Dean wasn’t really sure what to make of her, but hey, sex was sex. 

Dean felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. More than once. Who would be calling him? He didn’t want to leave the table because he knew that if he did, Sam would make a move. He glanced at the screen and saw that it was Cas. Sam noticed the movement and jerked his head in question. 

“It’s just Cas, I’ll call him later.” 

“No, you should get that.” Sam widened his eyes to say _just go_. 

Holly grinned, “Don’t worry, I’ll still be here when you get back.”

_Damn_. Dean groaned as he left the table and accepted the call. “What is it, Cas?”

“There’s a chupacabra at the door.”

“What?” 

“There’s a-”

“Ya, I heard you the first time. Why do you think there’s a chupacabra at the door?”

“We could hear it scratching.”

Dean rolled his eyes. “Cas, it’s not a chupacabra.”

There was a pause. “How do you know?”

“I just do.”

“But it isn’t impossible.”

Dean sighed, “No, it’s not impossible but it’s very unlikely. You’re fine. I have to go, Cas.”

“Dean…”

He held the phone to his ear instead of putting it down. “What?”

Cas’s voice was small on the other end, “I need you.” Dean’s hand tightened on the phone. He’d never been able to say no to that. 

***

Cas and Jack were both under the blanket now and Cas had his angel blade at his side just in case. There was a noise at the door and they both jumped. “Hey guys,” Dean called out and they both sighed in relief. 

“Did you see anything?” Jack asked.

Dean came into the room frowning, “Nope. There was nothing out there. No chupacabras.”

Cas looked curiously at the woman who came in with Sam and got up from the couch, crossing the room to where Dean was standing. 

“Sorry for making you leave early,” he said in an undertone so the others wouldn’t notice. Though Sam was giving the woman a tour and she seemed sufficiently distracted. 

Dean ran a hand over his face. “It’s fine, Cas. She seems more interested in Sam anyways.” 

Cas felt a stab of guilt. He hadn’t wanted to ruin Dean’s night. “Maybe I could help. I could help you sleep with her.”

Dean looked at him with wide eyes and stared for a second. Cas wondered if this was what he always looked like when he stared too long. “Are you drunk?”

“Maybe a little.”

Dean laughed and shook his head to himself.

“True American?” Sam called across the room to them. 

Dean smiled at Cas, “Ya, why not.”

“Yes!” Jack jumped up and went to the corner they had some flats of pop. 

“What is that?” Holly asked Sam. 

“You’ll see,” he just winked at her. He went to the kitchen to grab beers and a bottle of whiskey. 

Before long they were all jumping between couch cushions and various other furniture (because the floor was lava) and yelling quotes to each other to finish. Bursting out laughing when Cas actually knew some because of he and Dean’s movie nights. Losing articles of clothing as punishment when they failed. Poor Holly was having a hard time remembering the rules and kept having to re-enter the game. Cas kept trying to finagle ways for Dean to be stuck on a cushion with Holly so that they’d have to hold on to each other to not fall into the ‘lava’. Eventually they were too intoxicated to keep leaping around and he found himself sitting beside Dean on the couch. Sam and Holly were on cushions in front of the couch. Jack had gotten distracted by his colouring book on the kitchen table and was burping from all the pop. 

Dean had lost his shirt and pants during the game and was wearing Cas’s coat over his boxers. Cas was shirtless, but still had his pants. Sam still had the majority of his clothes on and Holly was in her bra and jeans, but using her scarf to strategically cover her cleavage. 

Cas glanced at the den adjoining the living room that contained a few bookcases and had a large metal door that slid across the entrance. They called it the book nook. It seemed perfect for something he’d seen in a couple movies but didn’t entirely understand the point of. But it could help Dean. And that’s what he’d said he’d do. He gestured towards the room, “What about closet of heaven?”

They all turned to look at him in confusion. “What?” Dean asked.

“You know, like in the movie the other night. Two people go in and have to kiss.” Cas widened his eyes and glanced towards Holly significantly so that Dean would understand.

“Oh, you mean 7 minutes in heaven.” Dean laughed. 

“Let’s do the count!” Sam called out. 

“What?” Holly asked, confused again. 

“Just use your hand to put a number - two, three, or four - on your forehead when we say when,” Dean explained. “Pick any number but two. _Any number but two_.” He emphasized.

“Go!” Sam shouted and Cas put his hand to his forehead. Sam had picked three. Holly had four. Sam started laughing uncontrollably. 

Dean groaned at Holly, “I told you to pick two.”

Her mouth fell open, “No you didn’t, you said-” 

“Dean,” Sam interrupted, pointing between Dean and Cas, still laughing hard. Dean finally turned to look at Cas and Cas’s eyes widened as he saw that Dean had picked two. Matching his own hand. 

“Alright, get in there!” Sam pushed them into the book nook and shut the door on them, ignoring Dean’s protests. The last thing they saw was Sam putting his arm around Holly. 

“Damnit.” Dean slammed his hand against the metal door. 

Sam, Holly, and even Jack were chanting on the other side, “Kiss kiss kiss kiss!”

Cas bit his lip, “I can see how in this instance, I may be a cooler.” 

Dean rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s fine, Cas. But how are we going to get out of here?” 

Cas swallowed heavily. “By kissing?”

Dean’s cheeks flushed, then he snapped his fingers. “I know.” He pulled out his phone and came right up to Cas’s side. Cas held his breath and Dean held the phone out at arm’s length and leaned in, kissing his cheek. He pulled away quickly and tapped at the phone. 

They could hear Sam laugh on the other side of the door. “Nope! Cheek doesn’t count, Dean! Suck it up and french a little!” Dean groaned and crouched down by the door’s hinge, trying to see if there was a way he could remove the bolts, but they seemed pretty solid. 

Cas stepped from foot to foot, feeling more sober by the second. “Dean?” Dean hummed but didn’t turn around. “Is it really that big of a deal?”

“What do you mean?”

“Shouldn’t we just ‘suck it up and french a little’?” 

Dean tensed and finally turned to face him, “Don’t say it like that.” He rubbed he hands slowly over his face in thought for a long moment. He finally sighed, “It’s not a big deal. Let’s just do it.” Cas came over to where he was still crouched and went to sit in front of him at the same time as Dean stood up. Dean looked down at Cas as Cas was at crotch level and asked with slight panic in his voice, “What are you doing?”

“I thought you were going to sit.” Cas stood back up, taking a step forwards so that they were closer together. Dean’s eyes flicked between his and then down to his lips, licking his own. “Why are you licking your lips?”

Dean raised his brows, “Do you want dry lips?”

Cas frowned. “No?”

“Then I’m just making them better.” 

Cas licked his own self-consciously. Dean put his hands on Cas’s bare arms awkwardly as though he wasn’t sure what to do. Cas started thinking about what kissing would entail, mind racing. “Do you like tongue?” he blurted out.

Dean froze. “Do I… like tongue?”

“I don’t want to put my tongue in your mouth if you’re not going to like it.” 

Dean swallowed. “Just kiss me.”

“Alright.” Cas parted his lips and moved towards Dean. 

Dean pulled away, “I’m sorry, you can’t do that.”

“What?”

“Your face.”

“What about my face?”

Dean opened his mouth and puckered his lips strangely, “You can’t do that with your face.”

“Ok, I’ll do something different with my face.” Cas tried again, trying to smile while leaning in. 

Dean pulled away again, “You can’t kiss with teeth.”

Cas groaned and stepped back, “I can’t do this.” 

The chanting outside the door kept starting and stopping as the others kept getting distracted by something and then deciding to remind Dean and Cas that they still had to kiss to be let out. 

They’d ended up sitting with their backs against the door, side by side on the floor. All but given up on being let out anytime that night. 

“I’m sorry, Dean.”

“It’s fine, Cas.”

“You wanted to sleep with that woman tonight.”

Dean shrugged. “Sam liked her more anyways.” 

Cas was watching Dean’s face carefully. He really didn’t seem upset. Which bothered Cas for some reason. “Dean.” Dean hummed and turned to look at him. “You deserve to be happy.”

Dean’s lips quirked. “I am happy, Cas.”

“I’m sure if you left the bunker more often, you would have a greater chance to meet a woman you like. You are very attractive, Dean.”

Dean smiled fully and cocked his head at Cas teasingly. “So you do want to kiss me then?” 

Cas felt his cheeks heat and turned away. “I am saying that any woman would be lucky to be with you.” 

He felt a hand land on his thigh and squeeze it lightly. “Thanks, Cas. That’s very sweet of you.” He looked up into Dean’s eyes and realized how very close their faces were. He could see every fleck of red brown in the deep green. And Dean’s freckles seemed to stand out even more than usual. A dusting of stars across his nose and cheeks. Dean’s tongue darted out to wet his lips and Cas wondered if this was it. Was Dean going to kiss him?

A banging on the door along with a renewed chant of _kiss kiss kiss_ broke the moment and they both jumped up, startled. Cas groaned, “Let’s just do this already, just kiss me.”

Dean shook his head, pacing. “No, I’m not going to kiss you.”

“Kiss me.”

“Cas, stop.”

He could see that he was pushing Dean too far, but he didn’t care. The tension was too much and he just wanted it to be over. “Dean, just kiss me!”

Dean snapped and whirled towards him. “No, not like this!” Then he froze, eyes wide.

Cas took that in. “What does that mean?”

Dean ran his hand through his hair, “Nothing. I didn’t mean it like that. Because we can’t like that- that’s not… do you know like… that’s not what it-” The _kiss kiss kiss_ chant continued and the others were banging on the door loudly again. Dean clearly couldn’t take it anymore. He slammed his fists against the door himself and yelled, “Sam, you open this door **right now**. I’m not fooling around anymore.” Cas had never heard him so angry. With maybe just a hint of fear mixed in?

“You don’t have to kiss me, Dean…” Cas said softly.

The chanting stopped suddenly and Sam slid the door open. “Hey, man, are you-”

Dean stormed past Sam and went towards his room, seconds later they could hear the slam of his door at the end of the hall. 

Sam looked at Cas curiously and Cas just shrugged. Too tired to try and explain. Not that he even knew exactly what had happened. 

***

Dean slipped out of his room when he heard Sam clearing up beer bottles. Glancing quickly around the living area he didn’t see Cas, and took a relieved breath. He also brought some bottles into the kitchen before getting himself a glass of water. 

“So,” Sam broached. Dean sat down on a stool by the table, sipping at his water. He didn’t really want to talk but clearly Sam wasn’t going to leave it alone. “I didn’t realize you were that upset.”

Dean shrugged. “It’s fine. You wouldn’t let me out.”

“I didn’t think it was that big of a deal, it’s just a kiss.”

Dean looked down and drew lines in the condensation on his glass with his finger. Sam was right. It was just a kiss. But with Cas… somehow it wasn’t. It was more than that. It was something that had been staring him in the face for years, both literally and metaphorically. He rubbed a hand over his eyes, “I’m an idiot.”

Sam sighed. “Ok, well we’ll talk more about it in the morning. Holly is waiting for me.”

Dean laughed softly. “Have fun, Sammy.” He winked at Sam as he left the kitchen grinning. 

Downing the rest of his glass of water he got up and went back to bed. 

It couldn’t have been more than a couple hours later when Dean heard a soft knock at his door. He got up and opened it, rubbing his eyes sleepily. Cas was standing there in his pjs, which were really just some of Dean’s old pj pants and a worn t-shirt. His eyes were wide. “What’s wrong, Cas?”

“The scratching’s back.”

Dean blinked at him and grumbled, walking towards the door to the bunker, “Alright, alright. I’ll take care of it, just relax.” Cas followed close behind. 

Dean opened the bunker door and a gust of wind blew in, making them both gasp at the cold. A branch from a nearby tree swayed into view and scratched against the wall next to the door. Dean turned to look at Cas with a smirk, “See. It’s just the wind.”

Cas nodded and gestured to shut the door. 

They walked back towards the bedrooms. “Thank you, Dean.”

“It’s all good.” Dean waved away his thanks. 

Cas side-eyed him up and down, “No more trench coat?”

Dean shrugged, “Guess old Dean is back.”

They reached their doors and turned towards each other. Cas finally spoke, “I like old Dean better.” Dean gazed at Cas’s soft smile for a moment. “Goodnight Dean.” Cas turned to leave and Dean made a split second decision. 

He reached out and grabbed Cas’s wrist, pulling him towards him. His other hand found Cas’s neck and he fell into him, lips meeting firmly. Cas’s arms wrapped around him instantly and he kissed him back intensely. Dean let his tongue swipe into Cas’s mouth and he swallowed Cas’s moan. His ran his fingers through Cas’s hair and pulled back to press two more soft kisses to Cas’s lips. “I meant something like that,” he whispered. He met Cas’s eyes briefly before turning away and escaping to his room before he could face what he’d just done. 

***

Cas stood in the hall staring at Dean’s door. He pressed two fingers to his lips and couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across his face as he replayed that kiss. _Dean’s kiss_. 

His feet moved without him telling them to and he found himself knocking at Dean’s door again. Dean couldn’t have gotten all the way into bed because he opened the door right away. He didn’t say anything, just stared at Cas with a question in his eyes. 

“Can we do that again?” Cas asked. 

“God yes.” Dean grabbed Cas and pulled him in, and they fell together, lips meeting again and again. As if they could never have enough. Dean pulled Cas onto the bed with him and Cas wiggled to get under the covers with him. They finally took a breath and just held each other, Cas staring deep into Dean’s eyes. 

He ran his fingers over Dean’s cheekbone. “Am I still your cooler?”

“No.” Dean’s voice rumbled. “You’re just mine.”


End file.
